When the suspension is boosted and with bigger wheels, and it's given a better paint job, this 440 cid beauty is fun to drive.
As I recall, that Model T motor became the Miller racing motors in later years, albeit w/ a much different cylinder head. The lead engineer was some guy named “Offenhauser.”
From the article: “The Model T — whose mass production technique was the work of engineer William C. Klann, who had visited a slaughterhouse’s “disassembly line” — conferred to Americans the notion of automobility as something akin to natural law, a right endowed by our Creator. A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers’ boots.”
Is it possible for any of these meatheads at Time/Newsweek/NYT to write a single article without going into “blood for oil”/ Iraq War/Global Warming mode? It really ruins the article.
Not a single mention of the K-car. Amazing
As an example, they write, about the Jaguar X-type It hardly matters that the X-Type was not that bad a car. Young affluent buyers had the feeling they were somehow being grifted. They were.
Well when you put it on the worst 50 cars of history list, it does, actually matter whether or not it was or was not that bad a car. It is like putting someone on the 50 most violent criminals of history list and then admitting that he never actually committed any crimes.
I own one and it is a great car. No one got grifted by Jaguar. Jaguar did not market it as an XJ8 VDP which is 2.5 times as expensive, as well as being 4 times the volume, and twice the weight, and if folks thought they could buy an XJ8 at a 70% discount, well, they forgot that you get what you pay for.
It is not a luxury car, but a sports sedan, that is extremely well laid out and with some luxury features, and which you purchase because you want something that handles really well, and oh by the way can still carry (some) groceries and take (a couple of) kids to school.
You cannot fault a car for not being what it was never designed to be.
Why is it that folks feel offended when Jag makes a sports car rather than a luxury car. First, the used to - i.e. the XKE, and second, they are not just a luxury marque, but resonably successful formula 1 racers.
Then there is the other crowd that is offended that the British would try to compete with the BMW 3-series. How dare they!? You would think that the automobile critics were a bunch of valley girls scandalized that someone would dare look better than the homecoming queen.
No mention of the Chevy Nova with the four-banger (I always assumed that it meant 4 micepower, not four cylinder) and the ever-so-smooth 2-speed(!) tranny? Worst car I ever drove, inherited from my sister because it was too gross even for her. Floored, it might get to 85 MPH downhill, which was terrifying considering that braking was an afterthought and handling non-existent. Most of the ‘worst cars’ others have mentioned had at least one saving grace...but that early Chevy Nova was lacking any positive attributes at all.
Thanks for your replies. You FReepers are splendid!!!
Not one Japanese car on the entire list. Not one 1974 Toyota Corona falling apart before out eyes. Not one Honda CVCC left to rust overnight. Not one. The bias is simply stunning. They call the Explorer, Prowler and SSR among the worst cars ever made. The Prowler is underpowered and the SSR is overprices, but among the worst ever made? And yet, not one POS Japanese car when they first hit American shores.
I can assure you, Japanese cars were a complete joke when they were first hit the USA. I don’t remember one worth a damn before the mid to late ‘70s. And even those cars had horrendous body rust issues.
And yet TIME can’t stand to put even one single Japanese car on the list of the 50 worst of all time.
Right... The continuing bias and anti-Americanism is rampant.
mark for later
I’ve had 2 cars that definitely belong on the list. A Ford Fairmont 4 door auto and a Chevy Vega. I think I had them both in about the mid 80s.